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Data shared with the Edmonton Police Commission on Thursday shows police officers chased about 18 per cent fewer suspect vehicles in 2022 compared to 2021 and about 18 per cent fewer incidents ended in an arrest. At the same time, police are using proportionally more prevention tactics such as boxing in parked cars to prevent them from speeding away.
Chief Dale McFee said their efforts are working, and the Air One helicopter is helping in particular.
“Interventions are working,” he told reporters during a break. “When Air One is in the air, it just gives us a whole other tool because it has the infrared (camera). It basically gets us to a safer place that we can actually follow these vehicles and have an arrest made.”
While McFee said it’s a good sign, he acknowledges that officers busy with other duties may be watching fewer vehicles speeding by, which could also partially account for lower numbers.
“It’s a good sign, but I don’t think we’re out of the woods. There’s still quite a few of them,” he said. “I don’t want to say that we’ve solved that yet. I think we’ve made progress, but I think we’ve got some work to do and keep focusing on that.”
“I don’t want anyone to think we don’t have our problem with vehicle chases … we have a number of them every night.”
Other types of control and intervention tactics police may use for drivers fleeing police include deflating tires by placing spikes on the road, ramming parked vehicles and boxing them in and, in some serious high-speed cases, ramming speeding vehicles to force them into a spin, then boxing them in, Staff Sgt. Joe Tassone told the commission.
In 2022, police reported one case where a person was so seriously injured by a crash the person was hospitalized. The report says police officers followed their criminal flight policy nearly 90 per cent of the time in 2022, which was a drop of about three per cent from the previous year.
During the meeting, commissioner and city Coun. Anne Stevenson said there are some “really positive stats” particulalry around intervention tactics.
Criminal flight responses — when police cars chase vehicles on the ground — dropped to 145 in 2022 from 179 in 2021, a decrease of 34. The number of chases ending in an arrest declined by 82, to 240 in 2022 from 322 in 2021.
McFee said EPS is asking the provincial government to change legislation to allow officers to seize vehicles going more than 50 kilometers over the speed limit as there have been more car crashes where people are injured
In 2022, police reported one case where a person was so seriously injured by a crash the person was hospitalized. The report says police officers followed their criminal flight policy nearly 90 per cent of the time in 2022, which was a drop of about three per cent from the previous year.
During the meeting, commissioner and city Coun. Anne Stevenson said there are some “really positive stats” particulalry around intervention tactics.
Criminal flight responses — when police cars chase vehicles on the ground — dropped to 145 in 2022 from 179 in 2021, a decrease of 34. The number of chases ending in an arrest declined by 82, to 240 in 2022 from 322 in 2021.
McFee said EPS is asking the provincial government to change legislation to allow officers to seize vehicles going more than 50 kilometers over the speed limit as there have been more car crashes where people are injured.
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Police are also looking at adding more drones potentially for use in high-speed chases in the future.
Police now tracking racialized and Indigenous employees
Police are also beginning to track and report on its percentage of racialized and Indigenous employees — the percentage of women staff was already being followed.
An update to EPS’ business plan for 2023-2026 shows the department will track this data to follow EPS’ progress toward having a diverse and inclusive workplace.
“A stable share over the years or growth in share will tell us that these employees feel comfortable to join and stay with EPS for a longer period,” the document states.
Employee absenteeism, turnover, engagement and satisfaction will also be included. EPS will also track and report complaints for dispatched calls, language support services, community and public engagement sessions, and satisfaction from the engagement sessions.
McFee said the performance measures are updated so they can make sure their resources are being used to get “the best bang for our buck” and “we’re doing things that work.” From use of force to solve rates and calls, many stats are already collected because they are legislated to do so, he said.
“It’s important we continue to look at all these things with as much measurement as we can,” he said.
